Prof S Cryan, Dr C O'Leary
No more applications being accepted
Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
About the Project
The translation of new inhalable therapies for the treatment of respiratory disease and systemic drug delivery is being hampered by a lack of appropriate, validated and regulatory-approved in vitro drug development and disease models. Tissue-engineered in vitro models can provide improved physiologically-representative testing systems to address this challenge. In cases of severe airway disease where surgical intervention is required, bioengineered medical device implants derived from advanced materials hold the potential to improve clinical outcomes and patient survival. The aim of this PhD project is to develop innovative models of the tracheobronchial and alveolar regions of the respiratory tract using tissue engineering strategies that provide improved in vitro testing platforms for applications in respiratory drug discovery, disease modelling and toxicological assessment of nanoparticulate drug delivery systems. These models will be developed with a biomaterial scaffold previously customised by our group for respiratory tissue engineering, coupled with the generation of advanced human airway cell co-culture systems, and validated as an efficacious in vitro research tool. This project will also investigate the potential of the scaffolds to function as implantable medical devices for respiratory regeneration applications.
The researcher will be primarily based in the School of Pharmacy and Tissue Engineering Research Group (http://www.rcsi.ie/tissueengineering) at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in Dublin and will work closely with other members of a multidisciplinary project team including principal investigators (PIs), pharmacists, clinicians, engineers, postdoctoral fellows and postgraduate researchers within this research cluster. In addition, the student will work closely with Dr. Daniel O’Toole’s group in the National Centre for Research in Medical Devices (CÚRAM) at NUI Galway who will provide expertise in lung biology, pathology and models of acute lung injury.
Funding Notes
This is a fully funded PhD studentship covering fees, stipend, laboratory costs and research travel. The ideal applicant will have a 1st Class Honours or 2.1 Honours Bachelor’s degree or MSc/MPharm/M.Eng degree (with minimum 2.1 honours from primary degree) in pharmacy, biomedical engineering or related disciplines. Specific skills which would enhance a candidate’s application include experience in some of the following areas: materials science, scaffolds in tissue engineering, cell culture, RT-PCR, protein isolation and quantification, advanced microscopy, histological techniques and nanoparticle syntheses. Excellent written and oral communication skills are also desired.
References
O'Leary C, Cavanagh B, Unger RE, Kirkpatrick CJ, O'Dea S, O'Brien FJ, Cryan SA. The development of a tissue-engineered tracheobronchial epithelial model using a bilayered collagen-hyaluronate scaffold. Biomaterials. 2016;85:111-27.
O’Leary C, Gilbert JL, O’Brien FJ, Cryan SA. Respiratory Tissue Engineering: Current Status and Opportunities for the Future. Tissue Eng Part B Rev. 2015;21:323-44.
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